English

The Value of Singularities

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2008-11-26 v2 High Energy Physics - Theory

Abstract

We point out that spacetime singularities play a useful role in gravitational theories by eliminating unphysical solutions. In particular, we argue that any modification of general relativity which is completely nonsingular cannot have a stable ground state. This argument applies both to classical extensions of general relativity, and to candidate quantum theories of gravity.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.gr-qc/9503062,
  title  = {The Value of Singularities},
  author = {Gary T. Horowitz and Robert Myers},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:gr-qc/9503062},
  year   = {2008}
}

Comments

5 pages, no figures; a few clarifying comments added

R2 v1 2026-07-22T12:50:03.325Z